We plan to reach 10 billion sq ft of green building footprint in India by 2022: PC Jain, Chairman, IGBC

NEW DELHI: The Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) plans to reach 10 billion sq ft of green building footprint in India by 2022, said P.C. Jain, chairman, IGBC. The organisation currently has over 4.63 billion sq ft of built-up space of green building projects across India.

Jain along with KS Venkatgiri, executive director, IGBC, was speaking at a roundtable organised to announce the 15th edition of Green Building Congress 2017 (GBC) to be held on 4-7 October in Jaipur, Rajasthan.

IGBC also plans to reach 10,000 accredited professionals from the current 4000 by 2020.

He further informed that more and more state governments are now taking interest in the green building concept. Already many state governments have started giving incentive to builders for developing green buildings in terms of Floor Area Ratio (FAR) or tax discount, to make it lucrative for private players. “Few states such as Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka and Telangana are also expected to provide such incentives in coming months,” said Jain.

Talking about the journey of green building concept in India, Venkatgiri said that when IGBC started 15 years ago, overall green footprint was only 20,000 sq ft. Raw materials and overall cost to develop a green building was quite high. Now, India has the second largest green building footprint in the world. “India’s green building market potential will be around Rs 20,000 billion by 2022 which makes it a lucrative market for private players as well,” said Arun Bhatia, MD (Climate, Controls and Security India Region), Carrier Air-conditioning & Refrigeration.

However, Jain admits that there is a long way to go. While private builders have started to adopt the green building concept during developing a project, Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) and building operators who maintain the buildings post handover from the builder, are yet to warm-up to the concept.

Even the existing buildings been converted into green building is yet to take off. Jain believes incentives from government can help push the concept for such buildings as well.

GBC 2017 will focus on the theme - “Sustainable Built Environment for All”. The 3-day event is expected to be attended by experts from 30 countries.